The most taboo thing about software projects is that problems are discovered late in the project. The later the discovery, the greater the risk and cost. There are many ways to avoid problems as much as possible, such as: preventive methods, more detailed requirements analysis, reasonable software process, review system, quality assurance mechanism, etc.; there are also fast processing methods, such as agile methods. However, the most effective should be the "system prototype" method.
Categorized by use: Confirmatory prototype, exploratory prototype, auxiliary prototype. Classification by purpose: Disposable prototypes, Incremental prototypes.
Since the system prototype is developed at the stage when the requirements are completed and the system analysis and design are not fully developed, customers can have an intuitive experience of the future system very early, which is beneficial for us to improve communication and understand the requirements more deeply. More importantly, if you use the prototype of the system to continuously interact with the customer during the development process, you can effectively pull the customer into the project.
For the team, the system prototype development is also helpful for the construction of the project team. Each member can warm up, get familiar with the requirements, master new technologies, run in the software process, and carry out some necessary training (business) incidentally.